What We Are

Vintage Roots Ltd was established to supply and promote the benefits of its organic wines and other organic drinks ranges. From Day.1 (1986) this Berkshire-based operation has only worked with wines that meet and exceed its firm and uncompromising standards, for wines of the highest authentic quality, produced and nurtured by low impact producers who proactively work towards sustaining and enriching their local environments.

Clearly we recognise that the running of any business will have some adverse impacts on the wider planet and that it’s our responsibility to manage our environmental footprint. Our ongoing success means that we are currently responsible for maintaining an office, a warehouse and fifteen or so staff. We run a small fleet of four delivery vehicles, a hard-working couple of forklifts and a fair wadge of packaging.

Our ongoing quest to source the best available wines entails a fair amount of travel throughout the UK and further afield. We take our responsibility to source and import the very finest organic offerings from around the world very seriously indeed!

Deploy sound waste management practices, including compliance with the requirements of the Producer Responsibility Obligations (Packaging Waste) regulations. We stubbornly insist that all cardboard, paper, and glass is segregated and dispatched for recycling.

Use Greenhouse Graphics for all our print and fulfilment services, thereby championing sustainable printing. There are only a handful of such print centres in the UK that are EMAS accredited. This internationally recognised accreditation is widely seen as the ultimate environmental accreditation for environmentally conscientious businesses and organisations

Regularly review, re-evaluate and improve our environmental status.

What We Want

To sell more organic wine!

Upgrade our vans and investigate the Biodiesel opportunity

Save electricity: use the review services of Carbon Clear or an independent environmental auditor.

Increase and improve on our 84% recycling rates.

our 100% renewable energy supplier.

our approved Carbon advisor and offset company.

Carbon Offset – Vine to Lips.

Carbon Impact

In our market sector, we’ve recently heard increasing talk and concern over ‘wine miles’ – i.e. how far a wine travels from producer to consumer and its associated affect on the environment. Though this is hugely relevant for unnecessary foods that get flown in from around the world, we have often considered that the impact for wine (which always travels by either road or sea) could not be a simple case of distance comparison. Hence a few months ago ‘Vintage Roots’ commissioned a study to reveal the true carbon footprint of all its wine imports, using a specialist leading carbon company called Carbon Clear. The results were very interesting and show that a longer distance travelled by ship is not as damaging as lots of shorter trips by lorry or truck. Buying a bottle of wine shipped from Australia or South Africa, for example, can carry a lesser carbon footprint than for a wine driven from Southern Italy by truck.

For example, a longer distance trip by ship isn’t as environmentally damaging as a number of shorter truck or lorry journeys. In other words, a bottle of South African wine could have a lower carbon footprint than an equivalent bottle sourced from Southern Italy.

Carbon Offset

In our field we hear a lot about ‘wine miles,’ namely how far a wine travels from producer to consumer and its associated impact on the wider environment. Whilst such a comparison is hugely relevant for unnecessary nicety foods that get flown around the globe, when it comes to wine (which travels by road or sea) we thought a simple distance comparison was insufficient. We commissioned Carbon Clear to dig around on our behalf and discovered some interesting travel nuggets.

For example, a longer distance trip by ship isn’t as environmentally damaging as a number of shorter truck or lorry journeys. In other words, a bottle of South African wine could have a lower carbon footprint than an equivalent bottle sourced from Southern Italy.

Carbon offsetting is a way of compensating for the emissions produced with an equivalent carbon saving. Naturally, we only offset those elements we can’t actively control or aren’t able yet to reduce whilst actively encouraging our suppliers to follow our lead.

At this point it’s worth highlighting as a rule of thumb wines produced organically carry only half the eco-footprint of their conventionally produced peers. Carbon offsetting involves calculating emissions and then purchasing ‘credits’ from emission reduction projects.

We’d acknowledge that ‘carbon offsetting’ isn’t a silver bullet for climate change, however it does provide a worthwhile benchmark by which socially responsible businesses like ours can be judged whilst at the same time fostering healthy debate.

The offset funds raised go towards a number of ethical local projects (not only tree planting), that encourage investment in clean technology, reducing emissions and improving lives. We took the decision ten years ago to offset all our wine imports (including UK to UK) and to the best of our knowledge became the first UK wine company to back to such an initiative long-term.

The Cakit Hydro Power Project - Turkey

A previous example of where our carbon offset funds have gone is this

A run-of-the-river hydro power project which reduces emissions by displacing traditional fossil fuel electricity with renewable energy from flowing water.

If that wasn’t enough, the project has created 13 jobs, champions an environmental awareness campaign in the surrounding local schools and encourages meaningful reforestation.

It fills us with pride that Cakit is the first Turkish project and hydropower initiative to acquire Social Carbon certification

It’s a Catchy Phase but what does ‘Vine to Lips’ Mean?

When we say Carbon Offset – "Vine to Lips" we’re referring to the journey of the wine from the vineyard, (once bottled) all the way to our distribution warehouse in the UK. The term doesn’t relate to the wine itself, or each individual ‘jaunt’ a bottle may take around the UK, or elsewhere, before you, our customer decides to drink and enjoy it. Unfortunately we could never be that accurate.

This said, what we are doing feels like a very worthwhile step in the right direction!

Vintage Roots - Carbon Offset Proposal

Carbon Clear proposal for Vintage Roots. Emissions offset estimates based on data provided by Vintage Roots relating to importation of a case of 12 bottles of wine.

Country

Distance Travelled

Kilograms of CO2

Carbon Cost

Argentina

13,080 km

6.105

£0.039

Australia

20,455 km

3.465

£0.022

Austria – Road Only

1,600 km

1.697

£0.011

Chile

15,180 km

2.805

£0.018

England – Road Only

250 km

0.265

£0.002

France – Toulouse Region

825 km

0.87

£0.006

Germany-Southern region

752 km

0.797

£0.005

Greece

5,230 km

1.155

£0.007

Italy (Veneto)Road Only

950 km

1.007

£0.006

New Zealand

25,280 km

5.445

£0.035

Portugal

2,139 km

2.268

£0.014

Sicily

2,950 km

3.128

£0.020

South Africa

12,030 km

1.98

£0.013

Spain (Catalonia & Rioja) Road Only

980 km

1.039

£0.007

USA

18,030

3.465

£0.022

* Based on DEFRA published numbers for a Large Bulk Carrier ship and a 100% laden articulated lorry

How its worked out

Working with Carbon Clear, we have calculated the distances that our wines have to travel, and have used published emissions calculation numbers to show the carbon footprint of each journey. Some transportation methods are more efficient than others. For example, moving one tonne of cargo by large ship results in 8 times less carbon emissions than moving a tonne by truck. *

From Carbon Clear

Carbon Clear are proud to be helping Vintage Roots to continue their track record of excellent environmental performance. They are taking reduction of their internal emissions seriously, and are offsetting the unavoidable emissions by sourcing offset credits from developing countries. This adds to their long-term commitment to working with wine makers who are stewards of their local environment.